Causes of 'unnecessary' flooding in city bared

CITY OF SAN FERNANDO -- Mayor Oscar Rodriguez, during a flood summit on Monday, bared the causes of massive flooding that hit the city over the weekend.

“The first cause was the breach at Balimbing Creek just at the back of Toyota Pampanga. The second is the heavy siltation at Mapalad Creek [that] was aggravated by spoils coming from the construction of a mall at Jose Abad Santos Avenue. Then, we had problems at Tinajero Bridge where a lot of garbage has been dumped. What were supposed to be flash flood became floods for two days. These were unnecessary flooding,” Rodriguez said.

He called for the emergency flood summit to discuss moves that will be undertaken by various agencies and stakeholders, after reports of impending rains starting Wednesday.

In attendance during the summit were Pampanga Chamber of Commerce and Industry Inc. chairman Levy P. Laus, flood czar Marni Castro, Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) officials led by Regional Director Jun Molano and representatives from the private sector.

The mayor said it was noteworthy that the Sagip Ilog project performed very well in flushing out floods from areas like San Felipe.

“The evidence it is working is there was no flooding in Barangay San Felipe, which usually gets flooded even with just light rain fall. But when we were handing out relief goods there Saturday evening, there was no flooding in the barangay because of Sagip Ilog and the cut-off channels created in the area,” Rodriguez said.

He said more interventions are being done now to prevent floods brought about by Tropical Storm Falcon’s torrential rains. Among the interventions are heavy embankments from the DPWH and the release of additional funds for flood mitigation projects in the city.

“Along Jasa, four cross drains will be checked and rehabilitated. This may solve the flow of water at the avenue. Desilting of nearby creeks will also be done,” he added.

For his part, Molano assured the stakeholders of support from DPWH in moves to avert flooding in the future.

He also asked residents during the inspection to refrain from disposing waste into canals and waterways that contribute to clogging of essential tributaries.

“We would do our share in desilting canals along national roads. The LGUs (local government units) would also do the same with local canals. We plead to residents to stop throwing garbage in our drainage canals,” he told Sun.Star Pampanga.

Provincial Board Members Monina Laus, Trina Dizon and Olga Frances David-Dizon, who represented Governor Lilia Pineda in the summit and inspection of affected areas in the city, assured officials of Capitol’s support in flood mitigation.

“We had an emergency meeting on Sunday at the governor’s residence in Lubao, which was also flooded. We discussed about the coming flood summit on Friday. She saw about the flooding in San Fernando, which she said affected businesses and paralyzed normal activity. She did her rounds of the province and discovered all of the problems [that] will be discussed during the flood summit,” Laus said.

PamCham chairman Levy P. Laus, meanwhile, lauded the City Government for its efforts in mitigating floods.

“It is a relief to know that the City Government is doing all it can to solve flooding in San Fernando and have never been remiss in its efforts to help Fernandinos,” he said during the summit at Heroes Hall.